Atanu Acharya, Gopal Chandra Mandal, Kaushik Bose

The burden of under-nutrition in preschool age children

Anthropological Review Vol. 76 (1), 109116 (2013)

Overall burden of under-nutrition measured

byaComposite Index in rural pre-school children
in Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India
Atanu Acharya1, Gopal Chandra Mandal2, Kaushik Bose3
Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapur
2
Department of Anthropology, Bangabasi College, Kolkata
3
Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapur
1

Abstract: Malnutrition is aleading cause of child mortality in India. To counteract this problem, anutrition
supplementation programme has been operating under the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS)
scheme in India since 1975. Recently, the Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) has been
implemented to measure the seriousness and severity of overall under-nutrition in apopulation. Since this
index presents amore complete picture than the previous three conventional measures. CIAF is utililized
in this study which focuses on the overall burden of under-nutrition determination in pre-school children
in Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India. Our study was conducted in 10 Integrated Child Development
Service (ICDS) centres, commonly known as Anganwadi, in the villages of the Argoal Gram Panchayat
at Patashpur II block. The total sample of 225 Bengalee ethnic children aged between 3 and 6 years was
composed of 115 girls and 110 boys. The overall age and gender-combined prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting recorded was 30.7%, 42.7% and 12.0%, respectively, and these rates were considered
high (3039%), very high ( 40%) and high (1014%), respectively. CIAF results revealed the same trend,
with 50.2% of these children affected by anthropometric failure, with the prevalence of underweight, wasting and CIAF higher in boys than in girls. This 50.2% CIAF result highlighted that approximately half the
study children were undernourished. Since this figure is much higher than that estimated by any of the
three conventional indicators,, CIAF has thus proven afar better indicator in assessing the overall burden
of under-nutrition in a population. The nutritional status of the children in this study requires serious
remedial action.
Key words: under-nutrition, Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure, rural pre-school children, India

Introduction
Each countrys developmental status is
increasingly judged world-wide on the
nutritional status of its people; and the

future strength of a nation will be determined by the health and education of

its people. Promoting optimum development in children is the responsibility of

Original Article: Received June 11, 2013; Accepted for publication September 22, 2013
DOI: 10.2478/anre-2013-0005
2013 Polish Anthropological Society

110

Atanu Acharya, Gopal Chandra Mandal, Kaushik Bose

every one (Lathia 1997; cited in Shah and

Patel 2009), and here it is essential to
recognize that achilds nutritional intake
differs vastly from adults because their
diet must provide not only for tissue replacement but also for growth (Kaushik
1997; cited in Shah and Patel 2009). Since
childrens health and nutritional status
indicate national investment in the development of future manpower, national
polices and schemes for children have assumed supreme importance in national
development programmes. These must
provide optimum conditions for balanced growth of the countrys children,
with the highest priority being placed on
child health, in accordance with UNICEF
(1990) objectives.
Malnutrition in children under five
years of age is one of the most serious
health problems in developing countries
(Bharati et al. 2008), where this is the underlying cause of 3.5 million deaths and
35% of the disease burden in children in
this age group (Black et al. 2008). Bryce
et al. (2008) recorded that approximately
80% of the worlds undernourished children live in just 20 countries in Africa,
the Middle East, Asia and the Western
Pacific. Malnutrition is also amajor cause
of child mortality in India, where the
World Bank Report of 2005 confirmed
that 47 percent of Indian children below
the age of five were malnourished. Further evidence of the far-reaching scope of
this problem is contained in the following research; (1) Bamji (2003) reported
that India has the highest occurrence
of childhood malnutrition in the world;
(2). Mandal et al. (2010) noted that the
scourge of under nutrition is most acute
among rural children, and (3) Chatterjee
and Saha (2008) determined that malnutrition not only increases a childs susceptibility to infections but also delays

recovery; thus increasing mortality and

morbidity.
Nutrition supplement programmes
were implemented on the 2nd of October 1975 by the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) in West Bengal
and in the other states. This date coincided with the 106th anniversary of the
birth of Mahatma Gandhi the Father of
the Nation. The scheme was launched
to provide holistic development of children below 6 years of age and for adequate nutrition and health education of
pregnant and lactating women. This programme expanded to include previously
non-covered areas and is now universal
throughout India. It encompasses almost
all development blocks in India, where
it adopts a multi-sectorial approach to
child well-being. It incorporates health,
education and nutrition interventions
and is implemented at the community
level by a network of Anganwadi centres. One ICDS centre now operates for
approximately each 400800 head of
population. The anganwadi workers are
locally called Sebika, and they form the
most important part of the Anganwadi
centre network (AWCs) providing the
above services under the direction of the
Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, 2011.
Anthropometric parameters are utilized to determine the prevalence of
under-nutrition in the studied populations. These provide a reliable method
of assessing childrens nutritional status
(WHO 1995); with the following being
the most commonly used and reliable
indicators; stunting (low height-for-age),
underweight (low weight-for-age) and
wasting (low weight-for-height). These
three indicators were used in the evaluation of our study subjects nutritional
status.

The burden of under-nutrition in pre-school age children

While stunting reflects a failure to

reach linear growth potential due to
sub-optimal health and or nutritional
conditions, underweight indicates low
body mass relative to chronological age
influenced by both the childs height and
weight, and wasting is an indicator of
chronic under-nutrition resulting from
prolonged food deprivation and or disease or illness. These three parameters
have different clinical implications.
The developmental economist, Peter Svedberg (2000), initiated the term
anthropometric failure as a new aggregate
indicator of stunting, underweight and
wasting. This parameter incorporates
all undernourished children in a single
category regardless of which of the three
conditions, or combination of these
conditions, affect them. This then led
to construction of the Composite Index of
Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) which has
the distinct advantage that it highlights
the absolute seriousness and severity of
a populations overall under-nutrition
more precisely than the three individual conventional measures (Mandal and
Bose 2009). CIAF thus provides a composite estimate of the number of undernourished children in a population not
indicated by the conventional indices.
Seetharaman et al. (2007) concurred that
serious attempt at estimating the overall
prevalence of under-nutrition in a population must integrate all categories in
an aggregate index of under-nutrition. In
addition, Das and Bose (2009) suggested
that more studies involving CIAF among
pre-school children from different parts
of India should be undertaken to obtain
a broader representation and a clearer
picture of this nations problems. Based
on these precepts, this study focused on
CIAF assessment of the overall burden
of under-nutrition in rural pre-school

111

children in East-Medinipur, West Bengal,

India.

Material and methods

Study area
This study was conducted in 10 Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS)
(Anganwadi) centres in Argoal Gram
Panchayat at Patashpur- II block villages
in the Purba Medinipur district of West
Bengal, India. The study covered all the
ICDS centres of the Panchayat, comprising rural villages remotely located approximately 110 km from Kolkata, the
state capital. These centres ran six days
a week and catered for all inhabitants;
84.4% of whom were Hindus. In addition
to pre-school education, the centres provided each child with food supplements
in the form of 60 gms of rice and 20 gms
of pulses each day and three eggs aweek.
Study Participants
This was a cross-sectional study where
subjects were chosen randomly by their
presence at the centres on the survey day.
The 115 girls and 110 boys, all of Bengalee ethnicity and aged between 3 and
6 years, provided the total sample of 225
subjects
Measurements
Following ethical permission obtained
from Vidyasagar University Authorities,
each subjects height in cm and weight
in kg were recorded using Martins anthropometer and the standard weighing
machine, and following standard methodology (Lohman et al. 1988). This anthropometric data was collected during

112

Atanu Acharya, Gopal Chandra Mandal, Kaushik Bose

March-April, 2008 by one of the authors

(AA).
Questionnaire
In addition to these anthropometric
measurements, information including
age, gender and ethnicity was assembled
from apre-structured questionnaire. Additional information, for example, determined that participants were mostly from
agricultural families with two or three
children, including the participants.
Assessment of Nutritional Status
Stunting (low height-for-age), underweight (low weight-for-age) and wasting
(low weight-for-height) were used to
evaluate the Nutritional Status of Children as in the internationally accepted
National Centre for Health Statistics
(NCHS) age and gender specific 2
Z-scores (Hamill et al. 1979).

Z-score =

X Median of NCHS

Standard deviation of NCHS

where X is an individual value.
Svedbergs model of the following
six groups was employed to assess the
childrens CIAF; (1) stunted only, (2)

under-weight only, (3) wasted only, (4)

wasting and underweight, (5) stunted
and under-weight and (6) stunted, wasted and under-weight (Nandy et al. 2005).
The results are listed in Table 1.
Statistical analysis
Following measurement and information
collection, analysis was performed with
the SPSS-PC package for social sciences
(Version 7.5). The 2 value determined the
significance of differences between genders in the studied pre-school children.

Results
Table 2 presents mean, standard deviation (SD) and Z-scores for height-forage (HAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ) and
weight-for-height (WHZ). The overall gender-combined mean (SD) HAZ,
WAZ and WHZ were 1.53 (1.16), 1.79
(0.88) and 1.15 (0.87), respectively.
Table 3 shows the CIAF sub-groups
of undernourished children; with 20.5%
having single anthropometric failure
(Groups B, F and Y) and 29.8% having
multiple anthropometric failure (Groups
C, D and E). After summation in Groups
B-Y we found 50.2% of the children had
ahigh prevalence of under-nutrition with

Table 1. Classification of children with anthropometric failure (CIAF)*

Group name
A
B
C
D
E
F
Y

Description
No failure
Wasting only
Wasting and underweight
Wasting, underweight and stunting
Stunting and underweight
Stunting only
Underweight only

Stunting
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No

Underweight
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes

Wasting
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No

*Nandy et al., 2005

Another theoretical combination would be wasted and stunted, but this is physically impossible because
a child cannot simultaneously experience stunting and wasting and not be underweight.

The burden of under-nutrition in pre-school age children

113

Table 2. Mean and Standard Deviation WAZ, HAZ and WHZ Gender Scores
HAZ
1.54 (1.03)*
1.42 (1.13)
1.53 (1.16)

Boys (n=110)
Girls (n=115)
Combined (n=225)

WAZ
1.80 (0.85)
1.78 (0.95)
1.79 (0.88)

WHZ
1.19 (0.80)
1.21 (0.74)
1.15 (0.87)

*Standard Deviations are presented in parentheses

Table 3. Number and proportions (%) of Anthropometric Failure sub-groups
Boys
(n=110)
52 (23.1)*
2 (0.9)
10 (4.4)
2 (0.9)
24 (10.7)
7 (3.1)
13 (5.8)
58 (25.8)

Categories
A. Normal (No Failure)
B. Wasting Only
C. Wasting and Underweight
D. Wasting, Stunting and Underweight
E. Stunting and Underweight
F. Stunting Only
Y. Underweight Only
Total CIAF (B+C+D+E+F+Y)

Girls
(n=115)
60 (26.7)
0 (0.0)
3 (1.3)
10 (4.4)
18 (8.0)
8 (3.5)
16 (7.1)
55 (24.4)

Combined
(n=225)
112 (49.8)
2 (0.9)
13 (5.8)
12 (5.3)
42 (18.7)
15 (6.7)
29 (12.9)
113 (50.2)

*Percentages are presented in parentheses and calculated on the total sample number; N=225.

some form of anthropometric failure, the

table also indicates that the girls nutritional status was slightly better than the
boys.
The prevalence of stunting, underweight, wasting and CIAF for girls, boys
and the combined genders is shown in
Table 4. The overall age and gender-combined prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting were 30.7%, 42.7%
and 12.0%, respectively. These rates
were high (3039%), very high ( 40%)

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

52.7 50.2
47.8

44.5 42.7
40.9
30

and high (1014%), respectively, according to WHO (1995) classification of under-nutrition severity. The CIAF followed
this trend with 50.2% children CIAF affected. Although the boys prevalence
of underweight, wasting and CIAF was
higher than girls, and girls had a greater prevalence of stunting, there were no
significant gender differences recorded in
the studied children; stunting (2=2.48,

31.3
30.7

Underweight

Wasting

CIAF

IC

Stunting

D
S
Ar ch
am ild
ba ren
gh ,
Tr
ib
al
c
Ba hild
nk ren
ur ,
a
C
Ta h
m ild
ilN re
ad n,
Ba
u
ru
ic
h
Ba ild
nk ren
ur ,
IC
a
D
S
ch
Pu ildr
rb en
a. ,
..

12.7
12
11.3

Boys

Girls

Sex Combined

Fig. 1. Under-nutrition prevalence (%) using different indicators in the studied children

CIAF

Fig. 2. CIAF prevalence (%); comparison with other studies

Atanu Acharya, Gopal Chandra Mandal, Kaushik Bose

114

Table 4. Prevalence of under-nutrition in the subjects

Age Categories
Stunted
Underweight
Wasted
CIAF

Prevalence (%) of under-nutrition

Boys
(N=110)
30.0
44.5
12.7
52.7

df=1), underweight (2=0.31, df=1) and

wasting (2=0.11, df=1).

Discussion
Stunting, underweight and wasting are
used as anthropometric indicators of under-nutrition in children. However, individually these three indicators can not
adequately express the overall number or
prevalence of undernourished children
in a population, and they tend to conceal rather than reveal the real problem
faced by a nation. Therefore, the newly
constructed CIAF indicator is a current
improvement in evaluating childhood
population nutritional status.
The mean HAZ, WAZ and WHZ in
this study had negative values. For WAZ
this was approximately 2.0 (boys=1.80;
girls=1.78), and WHZ values were generally lower than HAZ and WAZ, thus
indicating poor current nutritional status. In contrast to WHZ, WAZ indicates
current nutritional condition as opposed
to low HAZ which indicates chronic nutritional stress). Overall figures revealed
that 30.7% of the study children suffered
from stunted growth, 42.7% were underweight and 12.0% were in awasted condition. These figures were quite similar
to the regional figures for West Bengal,
where the overall prevalence of stunting,
underweight and wasting were 38.7%
45.5% 13.5%, respectively. The overall
prevalence of stunting, underweight and

Girls
(N=115)
31.3
40.9
11.3
47.8

Combined
(N=225)
30.7
42.7
12.0
50.2

wasting in the present study demonstrated slightly better results compared to

the Indian situation (44.2%, 44.0% and
15.8% respectively- Bharati et al. 2008).
The lack of significance in gender differences for the under-nutrition indicator
may be due to the absence of gender
bias in these rural inhabitants, and the
higher prevalence in boys underweight
and wasting is presumed to result from
their increased activity compared to the
girls. This led to agreater loss of energy,
so that the boys required higher calorific
supplements.
Previous studies from West Bengal
and India have recorded this nutritional burden. These include; Arambag,
West Bengal (73.1%) (Mandal and Bose
2009), Bankura, West Bengal (69.1%)
(Mukhopadhyay et al. 2011) and Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu (68.6%) (Seetharaman et al. 2007). All these studies
found high rates of under-nutrition
measured by CIAF. The total burden
of malnutrition measured by CIAF in
young Indian children is considerably
higher at approximately 60%. This is in
the country with the largest child population in the world (Svedberg 2011).
The 19981999 NFHS-3 reported 60.8%
of children suffered from CIAF and this
figure is slightly lower than the 63.8%
recorded in the 2005-2006 NFHS-2. An
earlier study among Bauri caste children
aged 26 years from the Bankura District in West Bengal revealed that 39.2%

The burden of under-nutrition in pre-school age children

were stunted, 51.2% were underweight

and 26.6% suffered wasting. Here also,
the CIAF showed ahigher prevalence of
under-nutrition, with a total of 66.3%
(Das, Bose 2009).
The use of CIAF allowed us to establish that 50.2% of studied children
were undernourished and 29.8% experienced multiple anthropometric failures.
Although under-nutrition measured by
CIAF is considerably lower than that recorded in other studies in West Bengal
and also below the national average, this
scenario is extremely alarming. Children
with multiple anthropometric failures
were more likely to experience ill-health
and were at more risk of dying than
those with single anthropometric failure (Nandy et al. 2005). A widely-held
assumption is that childhood experiences set the stage for lifetime experiences,
where childhood is the foundation for
both physiological and psychological development and experiences therein define lifetime socio-economic potential.
Thus, the capabilities that adults enjoy
are strongly conditioned by their childhood experiences (Elankumaran 2003).
It is concluded that the children in this
study had experienced both acute and
chronic under-nutrition. This situation
is not only distressing but very alarming,
especially when the CIAF nutritional status of the 3-6 years ICDS children measured by stunting, underweight and wasting still proved unsatisfactory despite
the Anganwadi centres food supplementation programme. It was established
herein that CIAF is abetter indicator of
nutritional status than traditional measures of stunting, underweight and wasting because it differentiates overall and
total anthropometric failure. Realizing
the comprehensive worsening situation
of children in the ICDS centres highlight-

115

ed in this study, the Indian Government

has now increased funding to these centres to improve the childrens nutritional
development. However, the aim of the
governments interventions must not be
only to increase the ICDS centre areas
but also to improve the quality and quantity of food supplied in these centres.
Acknowledgements
All subjects and their family members
who participated in the study are gratefully acknowledged, and special thanks
are given to the ICDS authorities in the
centers.
Author contribution
KB and GChM designed the work. AA
collected the data. KB, GChM and AA
analyzed the data and prepared the manuscript.
Conflict of interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests.
Corresponding author
Gopal Chandra Mandal, Bangabasi College, 19, Rajkumar Chakraborty Sarani,
Kolkata 700009, India
e-mail address: golmal_anth@rediffmail.
com

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